Chapter 663
Quel’Lithien Lodge.
Compared to an ordinary elven village, this place was a lot more lively.
Due to its neighboring Skywater City, elves of the west coast couldn’t avoid passing by Quel’Lithien Lodge on their way to the famous Skywater City.
This place became a beautiful town where every passing traveler couldn’t help but stop by.
Inside the elven kingdom, it was rare to find large merchant unions like those in human kingdoms. The exchange and trade of goods and resources mostly took place on a local barter basis. Most elves had long lives and enjoyed artistic pursuits such as music, drawing, gardening, and the like. Their desire for material enjoyment was minimal, and they usually pursued a ‘perfect’ life of self-sufficiency.
While humans lamented the brevity of their lives and busily chased after money and power, the elves spent their adolescence roaming as they liked on Garan. They drank dew when they were thirsty, picked wild fruits when they were hungry, and climbed onto any branch to sleep.
Things like influence, wealth, and power had instead become useless things that wasted their lives. Most elves chose to reject these concerns from their lives.
It was such a life of enjoyment and an atmosphere that promoted the pursuit of elegance that caused the pace of the elves’ lives to become so laid-back and relaxed.
Enemies were closing in on the lookout?
Warren quickly shouldered his longbow and picked up a quiver. He tied his shortsword to his waist and pulled on a vine, scampering up the tree near him as quick as an ape.
Warren found a hidden spot and hid his body with the dense foliage. He then pulled upon his bow and nocked his arrow before hiding his breath and scanning the forest in the night.
As a trainee member of the garrison, unwarranted alarms without finding any enemies would cause his commanders to reprimand him. As such, Warren could only observe his surroundings silently.
As he calmed himself down and placed his attention upon the night winds, he faintly heard some strange noises aside from the rustling of the leaves.
Chi chi, cha cha!
It sounded like insects biting on dead wood, but also like the sound of insects rubbing their shells against each other.
Such a dense wave of noise. Could all the bugs nearby have gone berserk?
Warren finally realized something was off as he was still stunned.
The ground was moving.
When he looked intently upon the ground, the black earth itself seemed to be creeping forward, surging toward him soundlessly like a wave.
The chittering sound was growing increasingly louder!
The black curtain of the night could no longer stop Warren’s sharp eyes. His expression finally turned!
This…this wasn’t the ground moving. It…it was an uncountable number of black beetles crawling forward.
They were like a black sea, surging across the forest, climbing over hills, traversing rivers, and advancing toward Quel’Lithien Lodge at an insane speed.
Beeeep!
An ear-piercing whistle finally rang out.
The arrow in Warren’s hand shot out and instantly sunk into the black sea of insects.
Who knew if he even managed to kill any of them? Warren quickly drew his bow again and prepared for another attack.
Just then, a strange sound of beating wings also arrived by his ear.
Warren lifted his head in shock; what came into view was a quickly expanding mouth.
…………
At the instant the whistle was blown, a lithe and agile female elf emerged from a tree hall in the center of the animated Quel’Lithien Lodge. She looked into the distance where the whistle had come from.
Almost at the same moment, Deputy Garrison Captain Alan arrived before the female elf, panting as he pressed his quiver against himself.
“It seems to be a siren from the southwest! Have you sent someone to investigate?” This capable female elf was the captain of the town’s garrison. She quickly asked the deputy captain this question when she saw him arrive.
As the military leader of the town, she was not as ignorant as the ordinary elf.
The west coast had not been peaceful recently!
If this siren was indeed from the southwest, then the problem might become very, very serious.
“I have. It’s Warren who’s keeping a lookout on the west tonight. Judging from the sound, it seems to be a siren from the west lookout. What do you think? Do we need to inform the garrison to gather?”
“Gather!” The female elf captain was still looking into the distance, “I keep having a feeling then something bad might happen tonight.”
Before the deputy captain could ring the bronze bell in the center of town, the southwest direction had already been thrown into chaos.
The chaos didn’t happen in a single place. It was confusion everywhere.
One could see with the naked eye what was happening. The southwest border of Quel’Lithien appeared to have been visited by a foul wind. Everything was snapping and blowing about where it passed. Many elves were screaming at the top of their lungs while quickly fleeing and climbing up tall trees.
It seemed as if some terrifying beasts had charged into town.
“Immediately gather the troops. I will go ahead and look.”
The female elf had no time to think. She left her instructions and leaped onto a tall tree, quickly running toward the source of the commotion.